State: Decision to drive kids to school means prison

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Decision to drive kids to school means prison

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 8, 2005

WEST PALM BEACH - A woman who was forbidden to drive after pleading guilty in the death of a motorcycle officer was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for violating her probation.

Sonia Ortiz, 25, accepted a plea deal in August for causing a 2003 crash that killed West Palm Beach police Officer Thomas Morash. She was given probation on a charge of driving without a valid driver's license causing death.

She was arrested April 15 after a sheriff's deputy saw her driving alone after dropping off her children at an elementary school.

After Ortiz said in court Thursday she had no other way of getting the four children to school, Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga said she likely would continue to flout the law and drive.